Do you ride a broom, or are vacuumm cleaners the rave at the moment?
by Rasee Govindani, 18, Bangkok, Thailand
Oct 5, 1999
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Oooh. If only I was the homicidal-murderess type.

Both my parents are Hindu and when I was a child, I'm sure they took it for granted that I too would accept this religion and make it my own. It was by default and none of us had actually considered the idea that I might actually NOT want to be Hindu.

Growing up here in Bangkok, I was exposed to Buddhism on a daily basis. In addition to that, my nanny is a devout Buddhist and I visited monks and temples with her constantly. Once again, no one ever thought that I had a problem with that.

I started third grade in a Christian school and stayed there until my junior year, six and a half years later. There, I learnt everything there was to know about God, Christ, the Bible and the Christianity on the whole. I listened and accepted these beliefs because it didn't occur to me to do anything else with it. Religion was not important to me at the time and I was quite satisfied with praying every night (I was frightened by nightmares so I took up praying) and singing gospel hymns every morning.

So I had this mess of beliefs which I didn't know how to sort out. I would celebrate Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese, AND Christian holidays, and no one seemed to think that's odd. I certainly didn't. Each holiday held a significance and being the romantic person I am, I didn't mind being thrown into the midst of all of this.

Nearly two years ago, my beliefs began to settle down. I had been able to shape my "God" into more of a friend than someone I would worship. I knew what I held on to contradicted everything I had been taught, but common sense took over and I was unwilling to let someone else dictate something as personal as religion. My basic belief was this: Religion should be a way of life that makes you a better, happier person. "God" didn't do it for me.

A little over a year ago, I began studying something called Wicca, a neo-pagan religion that is considered one of the oldest in the world. It began with the Mesopotamians and Sumerians to the Egyptians and the Greeks. When Christianity came around, paganism was quickly forgotten and declared the religion of the "devil," a concept conjured up by Christianity.

does Wicca make Rasee happy?

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